Court Extends ED Custody of IAS Officer, Two others in Money Laundering Case

RAIPUR: A special court in CG on Friday extended the ED custody of three IAS officers in connection to the mining case. The alleged accused were produced before the court on the expiry of their eight-day ED custody, the lawyer of one of the officers said.
The arrested officers were produced before the court in the afternoon which concluded in less than 30 minutes. The three accused are now scheduled to be produced on October 27, after the festivities of Diwali.
During the hearing, the ED demanded a 6-day remand period and said that there is enough evidence to support the fact that these officers indulged in hefty money laundering.
The ED on October 13 had arrested Vishnoi, Agrawal, and Tiwari, the uncle of “absconding” coal businessman Suryakant Tiwari, after it launched multi-city raids in the state on October 11 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In a release issued on October 14, the ED had claimed that a “massive scam” was taking place in coal transportation in Chhattisgarh, under which a “cartel” of politicians, officers, and others was allegedly running a “parallel system of extorting illegal levy”, which is generating about Rs 2-3 crore daily.